PANAJI
Fearing that election time political interests may displace the original 64 stall owners from the Dona Paula jetty, local councillor of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) Nelson Cabral has petitioned the Chief Secretary to ensure they are notified prior to their relocation.
Cabral in his petition to the Chief Secretary has suggested that the CCP should be taken into confidence to scrutinise the names of the 54 stall owners who were originally allotted the stalls officially back in 1998, besides the additional 10 who were accommodated at the jetty by a High Court order in the year 2000.
The Dona Paula jetty is currently under construction through the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) utilising central funds, but the 64 stall owners are being temporarily located at an alternate make-shift site nearby.
Cabral said, it is expedient that the government take the CCP into confidence to scrutinise the genuinity of the names of the 64 original allottees at the time of relocating them once the development works at the jetty are completed by the GTDC.
The saga of these stall owners dates back to 1998, when the State government had taken up renovation and upgradation of the jetty. The stall owners were then relocated at a newly acquired site near the NIO circle and multiple petitions in the High Court at the time of allotting space at the renovated jetty in the millennium year 2000 had pegged their number at 54 plus an additional 10.
It is these 64 stall allottees that Cabral has said have to be ensured are genuine when the current work of the jetty is completed by the GTDC particularly at a time when general elections are due and political interests of politicians in power could jeopardise their interests.
